Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana May 2018: Centaurs and Minotaurs

[MechaTarrasque]

There is a video on their thinking at https://www.sageadvice.eu/2018/05/21/unearthed-arcana-centaurs-and-minotaurs/.

They started out with centaurs (apparently a long-term goal), decided to make the PC version medium because of paladin auras (where is @LowKey when you need him), but they aren't like a special race of centaurs or anything.

My guess is that large centaurs are like "we are centaurs, we don't need no stinking classes", and medium centaurs are like "it is a hard knock life for medium centaurs, better get some class levels", which is why they can be PC's, because a PC without a class level is just an NPC. Or maybe all the bad things that happen to PC centaurs stunts their growth?

The MM minotaurs are large because of demons, but if the minotaur wasn't hanging around with bad companionship (and wasn't on Krynn), it would be a minotaur from the UA.

 

[Immoralkickass]

As Deadpool would say, 'This is just lazy balancing!' Forced balancing is ok in competitive games where balance is important. But forced balancing in a game like D&D just breaks logic. We aren't forced to play humans and elves that are 50% smaller than the NPC versions, so why the exception for centaurs and minotaurs?

 

[MechaTarrasque]

They double down on the notion that there will be no permanently large-sized PC's as long as there are class abilities/spells/magic items that give auras: https://www.sageadvice.eu/2018/05/22/why-centaur-and-minotaur-should-not-be-large-pcs/. Better start the petition for an aura-free 6e.

At https://www.sageadvice.eu/2018/05/22/seems-like-centaurs-should-be-large-creatures/, they graphically show that unless your centaur's upper body came from a 7 foot tall pro wrestler, your horse size would scale down. That holds less appeal to me, since I picture centaurs as four-legged Bron Strowmans, but maybe we shouldn't be body-shaming the other centaurs.....

 

[CapnZapp]

There are certainly many more, and more relevant, reasons to avoid large player races. That auras get "50% bigger" seem next to insignificant compared to having to squeeze in regular dungeon corridors, and filling up smaller dungeon rooms.

 

[Parmandur]

There are certainly many more, and more relevant, reasons to avoid large player races. That auras get "50% bigger" seem next to insignificant compared to having to squeeze in regular dungeon corridors, and filling up smaller dungeon rooms.

Crawford didn't say it was the one reason,but an example of the sort of problem that a Large PC represents to RAW.

 

[CapnZapp]

Crawford didn't say it was the one reason,but an example of the sort of problem that a Large PC represents to RAW.

Personally, if auras was the only thing impacted by size, I would not hesitate to allow large characters.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

From the video, it looks like the official answer to my questions is, "They are runts."

Which means they have no place in my game, unfortunately. It's a shame, I wouldn't mind allowing centaurs in concept.

Although, *I suppose* I could instead spin it that the MM centaurs are just overgrown juggernauts, maybe "Centaur Chief", assuming their chiefs are big, and regular centaurs just use NPC stat blocks with the centaur PC race modifiers.

 

[gyor]

From the video, it looks like the official answer to my questions is, "They are runts."

Which means they have no place in my game, unfortunately. It's a shame, I wouldn't mind allowing centaurs in concept.

Although, *I suppose* I could instead spin it that the MM centaurs are just overgrown juggernauts, maybe "Centaur Chief", assuming their chiefs are big, and regular centaurs just use NPC stat blocks with the centaur PC race modifiers.

Or they are a separate breed of Centaur. Like maybe the Large Centaur are Plains Centaur which has plenty of food and space to grow big, but the Medium PC Centaurs are Mountain Centaurs who have less space and food and so evovled to be somewhat smaller, adapting to their environment.

 

[Parmandur]

Or they are a separate breed of Centaur. Like maybe the Large Centaur are Plains Centaur which has plenty of food and space to grow big, but the Medium PC Centaurs are Mountain Centaurs who have less space and food and so evovled to be somewhat smaller, adapting to their environment.

Crawford made that very point regarding the Desert nomad Centaurs of Al'Quadim, who were Medium sized at the same time their Farunian cousins were Large.

 

[GlassJaw]

Personally, if auras was the only thing impacted by size, I would not hesitate to allow large characters.

Agreed. The aura thing feels really nit-picky to me.

I consider myself fairly well-versed in both 5E and 3.5 rules. In 3.5, size had a big impact on stats, in addition to spacing on the grid. But in 5E, I'm struggling to find many numeric implications of size aside from carrying capacity, grappling, and shoving - all of which are fairly minor. Size dictates monster stats in some cases but that doesn't apply to PCs.

Am I missing something? It seems that size would be more for flavor than anything else with regards to PCs, and in the cases where it does have an impact, it seems like it would be fairly easy to "balance" when creating a PC race.